Development Team Downsizing and Justification Makes no Sense

[Pixela]

As FFXI nears its 20th anniversary, gaming technology has quickly come a long way over the years, and I imagine many concerns came up as the game grew older in comparison. How long did you originally expect the game’s operations to last?

Tanaka: When we chose to make the game for the PlayStation 2 (PS2), we assumed the game was fated to end with the PS2’s lifespan. However, the Windows version extended FFXI’s lifespan beyond that of the PS2.

Tanaka: Back then, household gaming consoles lasted about five years before they were succeeded by the next generation. The PS2 was succeeded by the PlayStation 3 (PS3), which had drastically better graphical capabilities, and we felt that a simple port wouldn’t cut it. Of course, we received many requests for a PS3 port, but we had a massive amount of development resources, of which the graphics data in particular would have to be remade from scratch. Rather than pouring manpower and budget into reconstructing a world that players had already thoroughly experienced, we felt that those resources would be better spent creating a new game with its own world and adventures. With that said, we surmised that FFXI players would be emotionally attached to their player characters, so development of FINAL FANTASY XIV (FFXIV) began with design options for characters which resembled the player characters in FFXI.

Tanaka: It was like a parallel development period between FFXI and FFXIV. On one hand, the FFXIV team was working to the bone to establish their project, while FFXI was lacking staff members for development of Seekers of Adoulin and ended up getting help from an external development company.

https://we-are-vanadiel.finalfantasyxi.com/post/?id=120

[Pixela]

Come on, this isn't hard.

It is for you apparently, what a dummy.

With that said, we surmised that FFXI players would be emotionally attached to their player characters, so development of FINAL FANTASY XIV (FFXIV) began with design options for characters which resembled the player characters in FFXI.

[Sp1cyryan]

It is for you apparently, what a dummy.

This somehow invalidates what I just said to your remarks?

[Pixela]

This somehow invalidates what I just to your remarks?

You're so silly.

[Immortal]

Yes and where is the evidence that XIV had nothing to do with that?

[Alhanelem]

Yes and where is the evidence that XIV had nothing to do with that?

Do successful healthy games that are growing have server merges when the game that was supposedly going to take its players bombed and got pulled from the market? Doesn't make any logical sense to me. But what the hell do I know?

There's no way FFXIV caused that. FFXI was already going through rough times. 2011 was when Dynamis was changed and when Voidwatch came out, on the heels of abyssea, which is widely blamed by players for the game's decline.

It is thought by some that Abyssea being the crazy power playground that it was, made future content far less exciting and fun purely because abyssea made you feel so much more powerful, and then new content comes out and gives you a pale imitation of the power you had in Abyssea. Not everyone agrees with this exact explanation, but you can dig through these forums and others and find lots of debates on this where people blame Abyssea.

[Immortal]

It's called cutting your losses, when a big project fails they have to save money from any source they can. Which is what happened most recently I'm pretty sure.

Where is your evidence, sources.

[Alhanelem]

It's called cutting your losses, when a big project fails they have to save money from any source they can. Which is what happened most recently I'm pretty sure.

Where is your evidence, sources.

I already cited my own google search (whose 1st search result was the playonline website), the other source is this forum.

This has nothing to do with cutting your losses. As I said, FFXI was already declining before FFXIV. The death of FFXIV 1.0 did not boost FFXI at all and it really should have. Now that last bit IS partly opinion, but it makes no logical sense that a bunch of FF fans (whom *allegedly* came from FFXI in large part) with no game to play would not come back to FFXI, even temporarily.

Yoshida could have pulled the plug on FFXI. SE's main offices put forth the idea of winding down the game. He actually wanted to save it, and he did. Source: the WE ARE VANADIEL website. Read over the interview with Naoki Yoshida.

[Catmato]

There's no way FFXIV caused that. FFXI was already going through rough times. 2011 was when Dynamis was changed and when Voidwatch came out, on the heels of abyssea, which is widely blamed by players for the game's decline.

Pixela's link to the We Are Vanadiel interview clearly says that they decided not to use budget and manpower for improving FFXI, but for a new game (FFXIV) instead. 2011, the year of the server merges, was also years after FFXIV started development and 6 months after FFXIV released and bombed. I think your timeline of events needs some review.

[Alhanelem]

Pixela's link to the We Are Vanadiel interview clearly says that they decided not to use budget and manpower for improving FFXI, but for a new game (FFXIV) instead. 2011, the year of the server merges, was also years after FFXIV started development and 6 months after FFXIV released and bombed. I think your timeline of events needs some review.

Abyssea and voidwatch were before that, and this was when a lot of people started quitting the game. No one knew when FFXIV was coming out at the time. Yes, development was in progress but I find it a stretch that anyone would think "oh, SE is making a new MMO, better quit FFXI now." Especially without really knowing what it is or what it would be like. And, as I said before, the cancellation of FFXIV had little impact on FFXI, which indicates that there wasn't some huge mass of players that quit XI for FFXIV because a lot of those players would likely have switched back after discovering how crap it was.

That last bit is certainly just a hypothesis, however it's logical and supported by the pattern of events at the time.


As far as the WE ARE VANADIEL site, I'm not referring to the same thing Pixela was.